The Missing Pieces to a Night Fury's Heart

Chapter 1

“Good morning Alpha, how did you sleep?”

“Alpha, do my scales look too dark or too light?”

“Cod or salmon Alpha?”

Toothless blinked open his wary eyes, the raucous of the questions drawing him from his deep slumber.

A yawn tugged his way through his throat, forcing his maw to open. Another blink followed as he tried to clear his mind.

“’Morning bud,” he heard Hiccup say confidently.

“Morning to you too,” Toothless murmured, knowing his rider only heard the croon he omitted.

“Sleep well?”

He nodded, getting to his paws. The dragon tucked his wings to his sides, observing his human companion closely.

Was it just him, or was he smiling mischievously?

He gave off his toothless smile, bounding after him as he ascended the stairs.

To Toothless’s deep disappointment, Valka was nowhere to be seen. Though spotting Cloudjumper nearby made him feel pleasure instead.

He had grown close to both Cloudjumper and Valka, both being extremely kind.

“’Morning,” Toothless called to him, settling down on the basket of cod that had already been laid out for him.

Cloudjumper turned his head and cocked it.

“Good morning, Toothless.”

A sigh of relief escaped him. It had been two months with the battle with the bewilderbeast and already everyone had settled down to solely calling him by his new earned title.

He had been proud the first couple of days until the word ‘Alpha’ had been imprinted in his head.

He found comfort to the fact at least one dragon wasn’t calling him that.

He swallowed down a fish, the succulence of it making him lick his maw.

“My mistake, Alpha,” Cloudjumper suddenly said with a dip of his head.

Toothless moaned. “Not you too!” he grumbled, getting a look from Hiccup. To his rider, he probably heard a lazy growl.

“Something amiss, Toothless?” he called as he prepared his own breakfast.

“Very amiss,” he replied with a groan. “Tell them to stop calling me Alpha!”

Hiccup strode over and patted Toothless on the head. “Yeah, I know how you feel. Y’know… How now leading everyone?”

The black dragon sighed in relief. Hiccup had that strange way of telling how the dragon was feeling. Almost as if he could understand him.

He glared over at Cloudjumper and said, “No need to call me Alpha!”

“It is the tradition,” he said in that wisdom-talk speech.

His paw found his face as he did what the humans called a facepalm.

“Tell you what,” Hiccup pressed Toothless, eyeing Cloudjumper suspiciously. “Today you don’t have to go to the conference, alright?”

The Night Fury’s head shot up from the basket and look of surprise mingled with excitement.

“You mean it?” he asked in a happy growl. The conference’s Hiccup attended-now that he was chief-was usually about exploring new lands, though today’s was about something of boredom. When that happened, Toothless would roll around and make a mess out of everything.

“And then later we can go flying, deal?”

“Deal!” he purred, bounding around the house and sending chairs flying.

“Easy there bud,” his rider laughed returning to getting his food done.

Cloudjumper stared at Toothless with amusement.

“What?” the Night Fury protested with another toothless grin.

The sun had finally risen to its peak and already the black dragon was confronting to his dragons needs.

His head turned at a peculiar question, but was interrupted as he felt a small shove from his jaw line.

He looked over to see Hiccup.

Toothless’s ears perked at the sight of him. He was dressed in his rider’s outfit. The Night Fury still wondered how he fitted all those gadgets.

“I’ll be at the Great Hall if you need anything,” Hiccup whispered turning to clasp hands with Astrid as they left.

Toothless’s eyes narrowed with amusement at the sudden contact. Already they seemed to be partners, but-as he often seen humans doing- they needed to do some type of ritual whereas lots and lots of humans would come and join them.

“Hey Cloudjumper?” he called, spotting the familiar hulky outline of the dragon.

His head turned like an owl’s. “Yes, Alpha?”

Toothless flattened his ears at this but went on. “Could you stay in charge while I check the borders?”

“It would be my honor,” the Stormcutter said with a bow.

Toothless nodded, turned and dashed into the undergrowth, his paw-steps falling into step with the soft grass.

His slow trot suddenly began a gallop, the trees blurring at his speed.

Splash. His paw landed on a puddle. He ignored it, continuing on.

Finally, he skidded to a halt, his optics scanning the overlapping sea stretching out into the horizon.

Did he really deserve being Alpha?

The thought made him sigh.

Hiccup… He looked away from the sunset, another name radiating through his mind. His heart suddenly felt as if it had been stabbed.

Stoic…

He pressed his eyes together, clenching his teeth.

I should have tried harder, he thought with despair. I could have killed Hiccup… But instead…

“Alpha!?” The new voice arouse him from his troubled thinking.

He turned, noticing it was Stormfly. Toothless was to object at the title-after all he never saw Astrid calling Hiccup chief- and paused at the urgency of her voice.

“Whatever do you need?” he prodded, cocking his head.

“A dragon… Washed up on shore… Unidentifiable,” the Nadder panted, bowing in respect to Toothless.

The Night Fury nodded questionably.

“Location?” he asked.

“I’ll lead you.”

The Deadly Nadder shot into the sky, hovering just as close to the ground as possible for Toothless to see.

He dipped his head and she flew forward with a gust of speed. Toothless reared onto his hinds-somewhat like a horse would do-and leaped forward, his paws thudding in rhythm with the land.

It was only several minutes later did he hear the familiar whooshing of the waves.

The shades of the ocean left him staring for a few seconds before he spotted Stormfly circling and the job at paw came back to him.

He stepped forward, but for what he saw made his blood chill and his heart seem to stop.

Lying in front of him in a heap was nothing other then another Night Fury.